Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Others, Form In-Location Alliance

Nokia and 21 other companies have formed a new alliance meant to help improve the performance of location-based services on mobile devices when indoors. The alliance, called In-Location, will focus on improving indoor location accuracy, reducing power consumption of location services, as well as making location services easier to use on mobile devices. The group will primarily look to using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 to help improve indoor location services, and promises to use open interfaces and a standard-based approach. Nokia and its partners hope that by working together, they can speed up the development and adoption of indoor location services. The 22 founding companies include Broadcom, CSR, Dialog Semiconductor, Eptisa, Geomobile, Genasys, Indra, Insiteo, Nokia, Nomadic Solutions, Nordic Semiconductor, Nordic Technology Group, NowOn, Primax Electronics, Qualcomm, RapidBlue Solutions, Samsung Electronics, Seolane Innovation, Sony Mobile Communications, TamperSeal AB, Team Action Zone, and Visioglobe. The group expects to start pilot programs by the end of 2012 and deliver solutions to mobile devices before the end of 2013.